Australia

Kogan is a brand more known in the Australian market, but it will be good to continue looking at the Android products they put out, especially as they are marking a new cooperation with Taiwan-based consumer electronics outfit BenQ for this new iteration of their Agora smartphone. The Agora 4G is the second quad-core phone from Kogan, and it is entering what is an already saturated low-end smartphone market.

HTC and Telstra are getting back together for an exclusive partnership that hasn't happened since 2010. Coming to the Australian mobile company's portfolio next week is HTC's latest budget smartphone, the HTC Desire 300.

The wait is finally over! Well, almost over. After a probably excruciating waiting period, the acclaimed Plants vs. Zombies 2 is finally available on Google Play Store for you to claim. That is, if you live in the far, far eastern part of the globe.

Samsung's brand new flagship smartphone tablet hybrid the Galaxy Note 3 is about to go down under, and is now available for pre-order for those in Australia. We've learned carrier Mobicity has the new Note 3 up for pre-order as we speak in both LTE and non-LTE flavors for those interested.

Like many of Google's services, their Play Store gift cards initially launched with availability being in the US only. Slowly but surely we've seen their Play Music and other services expand to other regions, and the gift card option is doing the same. We've recently been tipped that gift card support is coming to Australia later this month.

One of the more constant complaints we get about Android and Google as a whole is that their media services (among other things) are often aimed squarely at the US, with barely a thought to users outside of North America. But lately the Big G has been making strides towards a more global selection of digital content, and Australia is the latest beachhead for their cinematic invasion. Google Australia reports that the Google Movies section of the Google Play Store is now live down under, on both Android and the web.

Sometimes our friends down under get unfairly left out of the news as far as the latest and greatest hardware goes. Fear not, Australians: HTC hasn't forgotten about you, and neither has Ausdroid. They spotted the HTC One X hanging out a Virgin Mobile web page. (Not to be confused with the US version of Virgin Mobile, a budget no-contract network - in Australia it's more like AT&T or Verizon.) While there's no release date beyond "early April", the One X is free with a two-year contract on a $59 plan or higher.

Down under in Australia HTC is set to unleash their newest and fastest 4G LTE equipped smartphone to Telstra. We know it here in the states as the HTC Vivid and previous leaks (even down under) had it titled the HTC Holiday. This 4.5" screen packing LTE smartphone is headed to Telstra and according to HTC is "coming soon".

The ASUS Transformer Prime is said to be hitting the US before Christmas (December 19th?), but for Australian retailers - expect to see the device in early January of next year. The price is yet to be confirmed, but the Transformer Prime may end up seeing an instant OTA update to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) due to the delayed release. In my opinion, this tablet is the best announced thus far for the year - so once updated to ICS, the best will just get better.

Early news out of Australia indicates that Apple has lost its appeal of a decision made in an Australian federal court, dismissing their patent case against Samsung and its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. AusDroid reports that the decision came early Friday morning. The two companies have been locked in a legal battle for months, culminating in a rejection by an Australian Federal court after a long period of injunction against Samsung. The High Court denied the appeal, meaning that there is basically no way for them to continue with the case on its current merits.